The present invention relates generally to beverage dispensers, and more particularly to such dispensers which use a water bath, ice bank system to effect the cooling of the beverage.
Beverage dispensers used in food service operations often utilize a water bath, ice bank system to chill the beverage prior to being dispensed. This is typically accomplished in one of two ways. One conventional way is to locate the entire refrigeration system, including the water bath and the various "hot" components of the system such as the compressor, condenser and fan, immediately adjacent the dispensing mechanism. However, this creates certain problems, such as undesirable heat and noise at the dispensing site. Another way has been to place the water bath and "hot" components of the system at a location remote from the dispensing site, such as in a back room or on the roof of a building. While this reduces noise and heat adjacent the dispenser, it requires the use of long insulated beverage lines running from the water bath, where the beverage is cooled, to the dispenser. The use of these lines is cumbersome, inefficient, expensive and may be perceived to affect the taste of the beverage.
In water bath, ice bank cooling systems, it has been conventional to use a separate compressor for each water bath in the system, thus requiring multiple compressors for multiple water baths. Similarly, combined beverage dispensers and ice makers have typically utilized more than one compressor, including one for the evaporator in each water bath used to chill the beverage, and one for the evaporator used to freeze the water to form the ice in the ice maker. This use of more than one compressor in the same refrigeration system is expensive. Moreover, the incidence of compressor failure increases when more than one compressor is used.